Falcao’s soccer love comes from his father and is undiminished after two decades of scoring goals

“My first memories from my childhood are being with him inside a dressing room, at training sessions, him taking me by the hand,” Radamel Falcao says. His is a family story, which makes it a football story too, told through photographs and in the quiet, almost gentle voice that characterises him, a hint of timidity in the man they call “The Tiger.”

It is not just that each stage of Falcao’s remarkable career is captured on camera all the way back to Lanceros Boyacá — from River Plate to Porto, from Atletico Madrid to Manchester United, from Chelsea to Galatasaray and now, at Rayo Vallecano — it is that each stage of his childhood is too, charted from club to club. In the family album, he appears in red, blue, white and yellow, just a little kid, but a little bigger each time. He does so alongside his favourite footballer, dressed in the same kit: Independiente de Medellín, Deportivo Táchira, Mineros de Guayana and the rest.

Radamel Enrique García King played for Colombia at the 1980 Olympic Games. He also played for eight different clubs across Colombia and Venezuela. Radamel Falcao García Zárate, his son, followed him everywhere. When his father retired in 1996, Falcao was 10 years old. Incredibly, he was also only three years from his own professional debut and it would soon be Radamel Sr.’s turn to go to games, roles reversed.

In January 2019, Falcao’s father sadly passed away. He had seen his son play at six clubs in six different countries and score more goals for Colombia than anyone else ever, arguably the greatest footballer in their history. Now at Rayo Vallecano, Falcao wears No….